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Favourite track of all time


tonymaillman

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Artie, thank you for the clip; one of my most favourite tunes ever, played beautifully.

 

My granddaughter is learning to play the clarinet and I play these Youtube clips for her and tell her that's what she'll do one day. Have to wait a bit, though, as she's only 9. :lol:

 

Now, Jerry, same from me as from Mr Shaw - only this time my favourite band. Singers are fine by me but I do admit I go for the band first.

 

 

And can I throw this in just because I love it? :wink:

 

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Great to hear a couple versions of PERFIDIA. And I read the comments -- I did not know it was a Mexican composition, although the title hinted at it. I enjoyed Glenn Miller's version slightly more because I also played slide trombone, wore glasses, and my family name is Miller. As a nice touch they showed his empty grave memorial marked MIA.

 

I enjoyed the Song of India and again, learned that the theme was from Rimsky-Korsakov. I hadn't known that before.

 

Now I'm going to look for CARAVAN... it was reprised in the recent Ocean's 12 or 13 film, you know.

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I haven't had a chance to visit You Tube yet, but as I recall, the Duke Ellington recording was the one I always heard and admired in the 40s.

 

By the way, it was a kind of thrill to see the Columbia label on the 78 rpm yesterday. Now if I only see an Okeh label my life's quest is over.

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I just haven't had time to sit at the computer and search You Tube. Re: Leftenant Kije's 'favorite track of all time' -- I've never heard it before, but over a decade ago I was on a classical music forum where a bunch of Kije enthusiasts were smitten by Prokofiev's composition. I just had a moment to listen to TROIKA from that 'suite?' Nice but not mind altering to me. When we get to favorite tracks away from 30s and 40s Big Bands, I'll have a few comments to make.

 

Re: VOCALISTS? Hey, I'm a big Ella fan -- Tiskit a Tasket. Not so strong on 'blues' wailers like Bessie, and others. Exception: Dinah Washington 's Love For Sale can get my heart beating. I suppose I have exceptions to all my strong statements. I thrive on ambiguity.

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Speaking of Benny Goodman............. :wink:

Love this track (on my vynil record it's actually about 10 minutes long). I'm a big fan of Krupa and of Goodman's trumpet soloist, who makes an appearance, Mr Harry James. Benny is superlative, as ever, though Laura says, "You shouldn't hold your clarinet up in the air like that. It should point at the floor." I tell her the band leader has to show off a bit or nobody would watch. :lol:

 

 

 

Is this becoming Nostalgia Corner for the Wrinklies? :D

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I never saw Harry James looking so young and slim, with Benny.

 

You Tube had a side of Drum Boogie, featuring a movie clip with Barbara Stanwyck as the dynamite girl singer. Maybe she oversold me. Recently I discovered that she is lip syncing her part, but still, I could watch her do this bit over and over.

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Bit unusual for this site for a "favourite track of all time" topic to be dominated by "oldies"!

I'm not saying there's anything wrong about it, because if we really are talking "all time" the chances are the best tracks will be older ones rather than something produced last week. Personally, I don't think I have a favourite track of all time. When we had a Desert Island Discs thread some time ago I found it impossible to select EIGHT tracks, never mind one!

I had an old 78 many years ago of "Drum Boogie" by Gene Krupa. It was a bit of a let down because it was not a genuine "boogie" (how could it be on the drums anyway?) and Krupa was not at his best.

I never thought all that much of "Sing, Sing, Sing" either.

I have heard most of the great drum solo records over the years, including Louis Belson's "Skin Deep" with Duke Ellington but I think if you really want to hear a great drum record you should hear Shelly Manne' s "Un Poco Loco."

Andre Previn, writing the sleeve notes, said it would have been a remarkable recording even if it had been one of the great classical drum compositions but the fact that it was completely improvised made it even more remarkable. It has certainly stood the test of time with me - I have had it nearly 50 years and still hearing fresh things on it.

I rate Shelly Manne as the greatest of all jazz drummers (of course, he played classical music too and is believed to be the drummer on the famous Peggy Lee recording of "Fever") He appeared in the Frank Sinatra film "The Man with the Golden Arm" and was responsible for most ofl the drumming on the sound track.

He was, I suppose, "the thinking man's drummer" - thoughtful solos rather than simply demonstrations of technique which is what most drum solos are.

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Speaking of Benny Goodman............. :wink:

Love this track (on my vynil record it's actually about 10 minutes long). I'm a big fan of Krupa and of Goodman's trumpet soloist, who makes an appearance, Mr Harry James. Benny is superlative, as ever, though Laura says, "You shouldn't hold your clarinet up in the air like that. It should point at the floor." I tell her the band leader has to show off a bit or nobody would watch. :lol:

 

 

 

 

Kate

 

Laura is quite right. But so, of course, are you! I hope you don't get into the hot water I did when I suggested on this forum that the correct position for playing the guitar was seated and with the thumb firmly behind the neck of the instrument. I was shouted down by the rock fans who don't realise the guitar existed long before rock!

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Agreed -- re Krupa's screen performance I was dazzled by Stanwyck's dancing and the low key finale with Krupa drumming matchsticks on a table, igniting the sticks and Barbara blowing them out. Show biz!

 

Man With the Golden Arm is my favorite film music album of all time - I wore out two 12 inch vinyl discs.

 

I suppose 'favorite' has to be contextual, not 'all time' because our moods change and tastes change.

 

Louie Bellson is from my hometown -- my dad took guitar lessons at his father's shop -- and Bellson is a drummer I heard in person in concert in Davenport. All recordings pale compared to live performances - there's no comparison. Duke called him 'not only the greatest drummer, the greatest musician of all time' in hyperbole praise at his passing.

 

Drum and percussionists probably don't impress the best when distilled into sound recordings. I had to smile back in the 60s when Playboy Magazine readers voted Ringo Starr the greatest drummer. Um, yes, in certain contexts for certain purposes. The Beatles would not have been well served with Bellson on the skins.

 

But great drummers? In context. What if you were to see in person a taiko concert from Japan where the drummer needs exceptional physical strength and endurance and enormous instruments! That experience cannot be distilled onto a sound recording.

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Drum and percussionists probably don't impress the best when distilled into sound recordings. I had to smile back in the 60s when Playboy Magazine readers voted Ringo Starr the greatest drummer. Um, yes, in certain contexts for certain purposes. The Beatles would not have been well served with Bellson on the skins.

 

i had to laugh at that a few yrs ago i would have loved to have seen ringo starr backing the likes of frank sinatra in a 28 piece orchestra he sounds as though he is knocking a shed down. :)

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Always remember when the Beatles first appeared on TV. My dad, who had been a semi-pro dance band drummer, through the late 1920s up to the war, was watching with me. We agreed they were tuneful and we liked them, then the picture panned to Ringo. Dad just looked, sighed and said,

"He can't even hold his sticks properly." :lol:

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I suspect Bellson COULD have served the Beatles well. But Ringo would not have survived five minutes in the Ellington band.

 

Kate's Dad was right - but he could have added that the other three could not hold their instruments correctly either.

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I've been browsing through You Tube Music Videos and wish to extend my remarks about CONTEXT. One of my most loved single recordings is the Trio Los Panchos with MALAQUENA SALEROSA. I have it by many artists including the most recent breakneck speed recording of it in KILL BILL 2. Yesterday I heard Placido Domingo perform it on You Tube. His voice is great, warm, and wonderful, but I would still prefer the Los Panchos because it is a ranchero song about a very poor man who loves a beautiful senorita and all he has to offer is a heart as pure as a white rose. Placido is too rich and sophisticated for me to believe his serenading with those words. The song doesn't call for a great voice, it calls for an ordinary voice. Years ago I heard Jose Carreras singing popular songs for West Side Story. Again, his voice doesn't fit the setting. We, the people don't want perfection in our songs. We want feelings that we can relate to. On this thread we got into Big Bands of the SWING era. I'm sure our various Philharmonic Orchestras like the Boston Pops can do superlative sounds but they can't capture the original feelings despite copying note for note. There's a reason certain people called their music SOUL music. Adjectives such as the 'best all time' are very, very, subjective,hence the many posts here.

 

When I used to see various popular singers peform "For Once In My Life" I would cringe - they were handsome beyond belief in tuxedos and singing 'for once in my life I can ...' Give me a break.

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